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Ok so lots of colour tweaking in lightroom some define 2 and selective lightening of shaded areas in photoshop. Lightroom sharpening mask tool for outlines only (press the alt key to view and refine mask). Just did not like the legs and boots so a pretty severe crop (sorry!)

Two years ago my wife and I accompanied another couple to the Topsfield Fair. I went street mode and took only an E-M5 II mounted with the O45. As we were ambling toward lunch, with me in the rear (as usual), I noticed this scene in back of me and, to get this image and one or two more, I had to hang back and became temporarily detached from the others. NBD, but it speaks to why I didn’t deploy the foot zoom. As it turns out, I was rather happy with the elements that were thus included. The performer is wonderfully cartoonish with the rodeo shirt, way too large gloves, the badges and humongous belt buckle, the hat out of proportion to the head but well judged against the outsized ‘boots’ along with the chaps obscuring the stilts. I’m of several minds about the image and many of these are on display in some response or other. Is the image a portrait or an environmental portrait? He was, after all, a walking photo-op. If it’s a straight portrait, then the background adds clutter and detracts somewhat from the figure. The illumination from the rear of the subject is also disadvantageous but not necessarily fatal. In a perfect world I would have wanted to see the full length of his shadow along with those of the group of iPhonistas just out of frame for whom he was gesturing, to emphasize the height he achieved with the stilts. Without people walking between. Maybe in another galaxy, far, far away.

Anyway, all great efforts and here are my first thoughts.

@Brian Beezley (still posted as of the closure but since deleted) Environmental portrait. Cogent crop kept the story’s salient details, good exposure adjustment though slightly darker than the rest. If I had ended up judging on crop alone, this would have been the winner.

@Kennikins In this version, we are not asked to consider the performer as a whole but, instead are directed to the face – kind of a portrait. Cropped to landscape, losing the feet (and the sense of being on stilts). For me, this removes much of the dada element. Some vivid color adjustments but the different colors on the clapboard wall in back is distracting.

@panamike Cropped to nearly a straight portrait. He stands at the left third. Coherent and vivid color with good shadow recovery, particularly the face.

@WhidbeyLVR This already has the audience prize, congratulations! But, like, Wow! The deemphasized background makes this close to a straight portrait despite the minimal crop. Wonderful compositing job, probably the truest color of the bunch. Good job losing the table and chairs.

@relic No crop. Environmental portrait/landscape mashup. Major warming of color, on towards golden hour, but coherent and vivid. The face is nicely emphasized. You mention retaining context - I don’t disagree.

@Starfungi Another wow! No crop, but subject separation is brilliantly achieved and the circular blur draws our eyes to his gesture. Essentially a portrait.

OK, I’m still no closer to a decision, time to exercise and empty the brain - - - - Five hours later, I'm exhausted and aching. As it turns out, I came down largely on the side of "cartoon".
Thanks to all who joined the fun. As always, I learned a lot more about my own image than I thought was there.

Many thanks, @Hendrik and congratulations to @panamike and @WhidbeyLVR. I was pleasantly surprised to be picked 2nd runner up (I never win in these ). I thought that your comment about white balance was interesting, as what I did was use the eyedropper on the frieze above the entrance to try to correct the color temperature as I assumed that was supposed to be white

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